This invention relates to a packaging box with a pallet which is made of paper material such as reinforced corrugated fiberboard.
A pallet is often used when a fork lift truck moves articles. The pallet is mainly made of wood, iron or resin. Because of the materials used, it takes a number of manufacturing steps to manufacture the pallet, and the manufactured pallet is relatively costly and heavy. It is also rather difficult to handle the heavy pallet.
One example of the pallet is one made of reinforced corrugated fiberboard. In conventional pallets made of reinforced corrugated fiberboard (hereinafter referred to as "a corrugated pallet", when applicable), three supporting beams are, in general, provided at equal intervals on the lower surface of the loading surface. Each of the supporting beams (hereinafter referred to merely as "beams", when applicable) is formed by laminating a plurality of stripshaped corrugated fiberboard pieces each about 100 mm in width to a desired height (usually 50 to 150 mm). The beams thus formed are bonded to the lower surface of the loading surface. Furthermore, a sheet of corrugated fiberboard is bonded to the lower surfaces of the beams thus bonded to form a double faced pallet. The double-faced pallet is extensively employed, but is disadvantageous in that the number of manufacturing steps is relatively large, a lot of material is required to manufacture the pallet, and accordingly the manufacturing cost is not acceptable.
In view of the foregoing, this invention will provide a corrugated pallet which is made of a sheet of substantially rectangular corrugated fiberboard, having a loading surface and V-shaped beams on the lower surface of the loading surface. A packaging box with such a pallet is obtained by combining the pallet with a bottomless corrugated fiberboard container, obtained by removing a bottom from a conventional corrugated fiberboard container.
First, the pallet will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is an unfolding diagram of a pallet, showing a sheet of a rectangular corrugated fiberboard on which folding lines are formed. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the pallet which is formed by folding the corrugated fiberboard shown in FIG. 1.
In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference character 1 designates the aforementioned sheet of corrugated fiberboard; 1a, a loading surface region; 2, folding lines; and 3, V-shaped beams. In FIG. 1, reference character a designates one edge of the loading surface region 1a; b, sides forming each triangular beam 3; e, an intermediate spacing region adapted to space adjacent triangular beams 3 from each other when the pallet is formed; and d, both end regions which are abutted against each other to form a further intermediate spacing region.
The corrugated fiberboard 1 is folded along the folding lines 2 on both sides of the loading surface region, so that the beams 3 are formed at equal intervals on the lower surface of the loading surface region 1a. Under this condition, the two end regions are bonded to the lower surface of the loading surface region 1a with a strong adhesive, and the intermediate spacing region c is also bonded to the lower surface. Thus, the desired pallet has been formed.
In the above-described example of the pallet, the folding lines 2 are formed on the corrugated fiberboard so that the V-shaped beams are provided at three positions on the loading surface region 1a - before folding, two beams are on one side of the loading surface region 1a and one beam on the other side. When the pallete is formed by folding the corrugated fiberboard along the folding lines, two beams are at either end of the loading surface region and one beam is at the center. However, the number of beams 3 may be increased according to the size of the loading surface region 1a. That is, all that is necessary is to form the folding lines 2 so that at least one beam 3 is formed at each end of the lower surface of the loading surface region 1a.
As described above, the pallet can be readily formed according to the method in which the folding lines are formed on a sheet of corrugated fiberboard cut as required, the corrugated fiberboard is folded along the folding lines, and the joining portions are bonded to the lower surface of the loading surface region. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper surface of the pallet thus formed is flat. Therefore, even if small articles are loaded on the pallet, they will slip off because of vibration or inclination, and the loading efficiency and accordingly the transportation efficiency are decreased. It is therefore common to place such articles in a corrugated fiberboard box, and then the box is loaded on the pallet.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel packaging box using a corrugated pallet.